Arsenal Transfer News: Andriy Yarmolenko Deal Reported, Latest Rumours

Arsenal have reportedly agreed a deal to sign exciting winger Andriy Yarmolenko from Dynamo Kiev.

That’s according to Ukrainian outlet Sport (h/t Alex Wood of the Daily Star), which claimed the 26-year-old will join the Gunners in the summer in a £23 million move. As noted in the piece, Everton have previously been strongly linked with a move for Yarmolenko.

His signing would be a brilliant coup for Arsenal if they were able to pull it off. The Kiev man is one of European football’s hidden gems, with no team yet proving capable of prising him away from the club with whom he's spent his entire professional career. Here’s what he can offer:
Yarmolenko is a genuine wide player, and operating on the right flank, he’d be a brilliant acquisition for the Gunners. Attacking-wise, he’s a massive threat with a blistering turn of pace, a box of tricks and a thunderous left foot. His ability to dart inside or burst around the outside of defenders makes him a hugely difficult player to contain.
As we can see here, courtesy of WhoScored.com, the Ukraine international is regular goalscorer too:
But there are other factors that make Yarmolenko almost unique for his position. Firstly, he’s a tall player, standing at almost 6'3", meaning he can be a major aerial threat against full-backs at the back post. Additionally, he’s a hard worker, something that would be key at Arsenal with 
Hector Bellerin potentially bombing on from right-back.

 

Yarmolenko possesses all the attributes to be a big success in the Premier League.

Aaron Ramsey does a brilliant job on the right for Arsenal in their best starting XI, but Yarmolenko is a natural for the role. And while adapting to a new league may be tough for a player so used to home comforts, if the Gunners could add his vibrant wing play to their attacking setup, it’d make the team a force to be reckoned with.

Arsenal to Improve Offer for Ben Chilwell

 

According to an exclusive piece in the Sun from Mark Irwin, Arsenal are set to make an improved bid of £4 million in an attempt to land Leicester City’s prodigious left-back Ben Chilwell.
“The Gunners have already had a £3 million offer rejected by Leicester for 19-year-old Chilwell,” wrote Irwin. “But they are ready to try again before Monday’s transfer deadline to head off rival interest from Spurs and Liverpool.”
The youngster has yet to feature in the Premier League for the Foxes, having spent the first part of the season on loan at Huddersfield Town. However, the teenager did start recently in Leicester’s two FA Cup ties with Tottenham Hotspur and impressed with his balanced playing style.

 

Chilwell shone in two FA Cup clashes with Spurs recently.

Sports writer Raj Bains feels as though Chilwell has a very promising future and was impressed with his performances at Huddersfield:
Arsenal aren’t desperate for left-backs, with Nacho Monreal excelling and Kieran Gibbs in reserve. Still, it’s important to add fresh blood to the squad, and a young, English player such as Chilwell would give everyone a big boost at the Emirates Stadium.
The move would arguably be a little too early for the teenager, though. After all, he’s not starting games regularly for Leicester yet, and he’d be even further down the pecking order at Arsenal. Pushing for a spot in the Foxes first team should be his next aim and then cementing his spot in the XI of a side that seems to be going places under Claudio Ranieri.

Liverpool Transfer News: Shock Nolito Bid Made, Latest Reds Rumours

Liverpool have reportedly lodged a surprise bid to sign Celta Vigo forward Nolito.

According to TalkSport, the Reds have made an offer to Celta of €18 million (£13.7 million) for the 29-year-old as they attempt to bolster their attacking options.
Barcelona were previously seen as the front-runners to sign Nolito—who has netted eight goals and provided five assists in La Liga this season, per WhoScored.com—but their final offer was recently rejected, per Sport's Lluis Mascaro.

Arsenal have also been heavily linked with the Spaniard and, per TalkSport's report, both the Gunners and Liverpool "are willing to fork out the cash now [to sign Nolito] and have met their asking price."


Per Mascaro, Barca's final offer was to take Nolito on loan for the rest of the season with an option to sign him permanently at the end of the campaign—hardly an attractive bid.
However, Celta will undoubtedly be interested in Liverpool and Arsenal's reported offers, and it could then come down to which club the player prefers to move to.
Nolito would be a fine addition at Anfield as he is very experienced and a consistent goalscorer.
With manager Jurgen Klopp having been hit by a number of attacking injuries during his short tenure—to the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings—he could do with another creative star in his ranks.

As can be seen below, Nolito is both a clinical finisher and an adept provider:

Playing on the left flank, Nolito could form an effective link with the likes of Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho, an attacking trio that would undoubtedly worry opposition defences.
While he is far from a spring chicken in footballing terms, he would still be a decent value buy at under £15 million as he must have at least a couple more good seasons left in him.
Arsenal's interest could cause a problem for Liverpool, but it looks as though the Reds have been proactive in their pursuit of Nolito, and they could yet get their man before the January transfer window closes next week.

Arsenal Transfer News: Isco Fee Named by Real Madrid, Latest Rumours

Arsenal have reportedly been advised a sum of £25 million would be enough to prise Isco away from Real Madrid in the final days of the January transfer window.

That’s according to El Confidencial (h/t Goal), which notes that while Manchester City are longstanding admirers of the Spanish playmaker, the Gunners are the side most likely to meet this valuation. Here’s a look at what he could potentially bring to the Emirates Stadium:
For £25 million, it’d be a deal worth doing from an Arsenal standpoint. Granted, the club is blessed with many brilliant attacking midfielders, but Isco is a special talent and it’s rare to get a player like him for such a low fee in the modern game. 

The 23-year-old is one of the finest technical players in the game. Isco plays football with a natural swagger, possesses an inherent, easy touch and can scythe defences open with a pinpoint pass.

As noted here by OptaJose, he’s also a player who presses from the front, thus setting the tempo for the rest of the side:
However, it’s difficult to see Los Blancos letting him go for that amount. Since Zinedine Zidane took over in the Spanish capital, Isco has become a key player for this team, with the Frenchman using him ahead of James Rodriguez at the team’s creative crux.
Having waiting a long time for a regular run in the first team, Isco will not want to let this opportunity slip.

 

It's tough to see Madrid selling Isco for £25 million.

In Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal have a brilliant trio to operate behind the centre-forward, but a player like Isco would add another thrilling dimension to their attack. It'd be a huge surprise to see a deal done for £25 million, though.

Ranieri eyes crucial February run for leaders Leicester

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Leicester face Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal in a tough February that Claudio Ranieri believes will be crucial to their title bid.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri believes a tough February fixture list could come to define the club's fairytale bid for the Premier League title.

Ranieri's men returned to the top of the table with a dominant 3-0 win over Stoke City on Saturday, before watching nearest rivals Manchester City and Arsenal drop points.

Defeat to Tottenham in the FA Cup third round means Leicester are enjoying a 10-day break from action before hosting Liverpool on February 2 - the only side to have beaten them in the Premier League since September.

Potentially pivotal back-to-back away trips to City and Arsenal follow after Jurgen Klopp's team visit, before relegation-threatened Norwich City visit the King Power Stadium.

"I told the players in the briefing that the month of February is very, very tough, so it was important to be top of the league," Ranieri told Leicester's official website.

"If a bad moment arrives, we are strong to get over this bad moment. February will be crucial for us."

The veteran Italian coach believes the fighting spirit shown by his squad bodes well for the battles ahead.

"For me it's important to let our fans dream," Ranieri added. "We will lose, I know we will, but it's important that we fight until the end.

"I wasn't a big champion when I played, but my character was very strong and I see the team is like my character."

Barcelona advance to Copa semis, where neither Madrid team awaits

We’re not saying Spanish football officials should just hand Barcelona the Copa del Rey trophy right now, before the field for the semifinal round is even set, but we’re not saying they shouldn’t, either.

The Blaugrana survived a bit of a scare in the quarterfinals on Wednesday — as much as a side possessing the three-headed monster of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez can be given, at least — when they fell behind 1-0 (level at 2-2 on aggregate) to a very game Athletic Bilbao side that already hammered the reigning Spanish, Spanish cup and European champions once this season.
With three-quarters of the quarterfinal tie in the books, Barca’s standing was tenuous; one more goal from Bilbao would put the underdogs in the driver’s seat for a place in the semifinals.
What happened next was predictable: Suarez restored the aggregate in the 53rd minute; Gerard Pique made it 4-2 on aggregate in the 81st minute; Neymar rounded out the scoring in the 90th.

Now past perhaps the trickiest remaining opponent, it’s hard to see anything other than a red and blue coronation on May 21, much of which they have to think their biggest, richest Spanish oppositions, the Madrid clubs — Real, who were forced to withdraw last month, and Atletico, who were knocked out on Wednesday — for making Barca’s path to a 28th Copa del Rey trophy that much easier.
Los Rojiblancos fell behind Celta Vigo, who for half of the league season put together a real push for a top-four place in La Liga, after 22 minutes, when Pablo Hernandez opened the scoring. Antoine Griezmann fired Atlti level on the day, but behind on away goals in the aggregate (0-0 first leg).
Not long after halftime, former Manchester City youngster John Guidetti made it 2-1, and Hernandez made it 3-1 just past the hour mark. Angel Correa pulled one back late for Atleti, but the damage was done and two more goals were still needed, none of which would come.
And with that, Barca’s path to another domestic cup goes through two of Celta, Mirandes and Sevilla, who play Thursday, and Las Palamas and Valencia, who also play Thursday.

Facing Liverpool in League Cup final is 'strictly business' for Sterling

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Former Anfield favourite Raheem Sterling has no room for sentiment in the League Cup final when Manchester City play Liverpool at Wembley.

Raheem Sterling insists it will be "strictly business" when Manchester City face his former club Liverpool in the League Cup final.

England winger Sterling left Liverpool for the Etihad Stadium in an acrimonious transfer in the close-season and cited a desire to win trophies as one of the reasons for his move.

Sterling will have to the opportunity to earn his first silverware as a City player after playing a starring role in Wednesday's 3-1 win over Everton that secured a 4-3 semi-final aggregate success. 

With Liverpool beating Stoke City on penalties to win the other semi, City's win sets up an intriguing reunion for Sterling in next month's Wembley showpiece.

Sterling told Sky Sports: "I might get one or two [messages from Liverpool players] but it's strictly business at Wembley.
"It's why I came here, we're lucky enough to be in the final. It's really well done to Liverpool because they got to the final.
"We'll meet in the final and may the best team win on the day."
City had to fight back from going a goal behind in Wednesday's second leg and there was a controversial moment when Sterling set up Kevin De Bruyne - who later left the field on a stretcher with a suspected knee ligament injury - to level the tie, despite the ball clearly going out of play before he cut back for his team-mate.
On the incident, Sterling added: "Listen I was only interested in the ball hitting the back of the net not if it went out.

"We got the luck this time, last time [Everton faced City] we should have had a penalty, we scored and won the game at the end of the day."

More Than 100 Teens Have Been Sentenced To Die In Iran

 

Iranians watch the hanging of a convicted man in 2011. Iran has executed at least 73 young offenders in the past decade, a new report has found.

At least 160 young Iranians are currently awaiting execution and 73 others have been put to death between 2005 and 2015, a chilling new report from Amnesty International says. 
As the world's leading executioner of offenders under 18 and one of the world's largest users of the death penalty overall, Iran had nearly 700 people executed in the first half of 2015 alone.

"The situation overall is shocking and distressing,” Raha Bahreini, the report's lead researcher, told The WorldPost. “It is absolutely shocking that the majority of countries in the world have rejected the death penalty, but Iran continues to sentence girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to death." 

Among the 73 executed youth was Makwan Moloudzadeh, who was sentenced to death as a 13-year-old and executed eight years later, in 2007. Moloudzadeh was accused of having “forced male-male anal penetration” with another boy, but withdrew his pre-trial confession in court, saying he had been coerced and tortured into confessing. Two boys who had also accused Moloudzadeh of raping them retracted their accusations, saying they had lied or had been forced to lodge complaints by the police. 

Iran also hanged Janat Mir, an Afghan boy believed to be 14 or 15 at the time of his execution, in 2014. Mir was executed following an arrest for drug offenses after his friend's house, where he was living, was raided. The boy was reportedly denied access to a lawyer and consular services, according to Amnesty.

 

Iran is the world's leading executioner of offenders under age 18 and one of the world's largest users of the death penalty overall.

Iran signed the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child on Sept. 5, 1991 and ratified it on July 13, 1994. The CRC explicitly prohibits capital punishment and life imprisonment without possibility of release for youth offenders.
Executions of juvenile offenders have also been reported in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Sudan in recent years, but the numbers are far lower than in Iran. The U.S., which has not ratified the CRC, has not imposed the death penalty on juveniles since 2005 but still sentences youth to life without parole.

Many of Iran's young offenders spent about seven years waiting to die in prison, Amnesty found, while some spent more than a decade behind bars before being hanged. The majority of Iranian children given death sentences have been accused of murder, rape or drug-related offenses.
“The report paints a deeply distressing picture of juvenile offenders languishing on death row, robbed of valuable years of their lives -- often after being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment,” Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program, said in a statement. 

 

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay spoke out against Iran's use of the death penalty for young offenders following the sentencing of child bride Razieh Ebrahimi.

In June 2014, the U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, called on Iran to lift the death sentence of a child bride who killed her husband in his sleep after years of physical and verbal abuse.
“The imminent execution of Razieh Ebrahimi has once again brought into stark focus the unacceptable use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders in Iran,” Pillay said. "Regardless of the circumstances of the crime, the execution of juvenile offenders is clearly prohibited by international human rights law."

Iran sparked cautious optimism with a series of reforms to its Islamic Penal Code starting in 2013. That year, judges gained the ability to give youth sentenced to death a lesser sentence based on the offender’s mental capacity and maturity at the time of the crime. The following year, Iran's Supreme Court announced that youth sentenced to death could apply for a retrial. 
However, many youth already on death row have not been informed of their right to a retrial, as Amnesty points out in its report, and several retrials that have been granted have been cursory.

"The Iranian authorities are celebrating halfhearted reforms that terribly fall short of international obligations," Bahreini told The WorldPost. "We are urging European leaders and other states around the world to raise the issue and push Iranian authorities to end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders once and for all."